The Sky Blues were usually in the midst of a summer tour in May from the sixties onwards and several games were played on this day (23rd May) across the decades as shown in several posts today. Nearly a decade after the game covered in the last such post on this site, on this day in 1978, the Sky Blues were in the Far East competing in Japan for the ‘Japan Cup‘ against seven other sides from around the world. They eventually lost their semi-final game 1-0 against Brazilian side Palmeiras in Osaka.
However, following their 1-0 defeat of the Japan national side 1-0 in Tokyo two days previously, today the Sky Blues took the field again in Omiya and got a 1-1 draw against German Champions from Cologne, 1FC Köln.
City’s flame haired Scottish striker (and CCFPA member) Ian Wallace was on the mark for the Sky Blues after only four minutes but later suffered an injury which kept him out of the next game along with Tommy Hutchison. Cologne’s Jurgen Glowacz only took three minutes to equalise but the score remained 1-1 for the rest of the match.
Manager Gordon Milne (like Ian now a CCFPA member) was delighted with the draw telling the Coventry Evening Telegraph’s ‘Nemo’,
“It was a great team performance against one of the top sides in Europe”
We have no further details of the game at the moment.
The Sky Blues qualified for the semis finishing second in their Group A to FC Koln after beating the Thailand national team by a single goal in Tokyo in the same sultry conditions two days later. As referred to earlier City lost the Semi-Final a couple of days after that by 1-0 to the Brazilian side.